Gaining Ground in Canter Departures
When you can consistently trot your horse into a calm, relaxed canter, you can start thinking about having him pick it up where you want.
Suppose that the distance between the point where you start to urge him into the canter to the point where he actually picks it up is about 100 feet. If you want him to begin cantering at a particular spot in the arena, you'll have to ask him 100 feet before that spot.
In time, he'll pick up the canter more quickly after you ask, and you can start asking a little closer to the target. As he progresses and his response gets quicker and quicker, you'll be able to adjust the point where you ask for the transition. Finally, you'll be able to ask just a few feet from the spot where you want the transition to occur.
This may sound like a slightly backward approach. Instead of demanding "canter here, canter now," you're accommodating his decision or ability to pick up the canter a certain distance from the point where you asked for it. But by continuing to build on his correct and consistent transitions without intensifying your requests, you'll allow him to learn how to respond better and more quickly without making him tense or aggravated.
Positioning and Relaxation
When your horse speeds up, it's natural for him to stretch his nose out, raise his head, and hollow his back. To pick up the smooth canter you're after, he must learn to travel in a more collected, relaxed manner-and to maintain that position through the transition. To get this to happen, you need to work through the process of having him "give" with his nose, lower his head, and relax his neck and shoulders.
We won't go into the mechanics of each of these steps. (The related articles listed on page 64 will give you details on the various exercises that teach your horse these lessons.) Basically, you'll be putting a little pressure on the rein to tell your horse to move a specific part of his body. When he moves the right part in the direction you want, release the rein. You'll use this technique to have him position his nose slightly to the side (but not past the inside of your stirrup), to lower his head so that the tip of his ear is roughly even with his withers, to relax the long muscle in his neck, and to bring his nose back toward the base of his shoulder, which will cause the shoulder to relax.
This won't happen all at once. Your horse will have to learn each component before you can put it all together. Once you have him walking with his nose in the right spot, with the correct head elevation and relaxation through the neck and shoulders, you'll need to work on the speed-control exercises and walk/trot transitions to teach him to maintain those things even when you're asking for changes. You'll also want to practice directional control, such as the serpentine exercise, until you can get him to turn smoothly without giving up the nose position and elevation you've requested.
Diagonal Work
The more flexible your horse is, and the more responsive he is to your cues to move specific parts of his body, the easier it will be for you to get him into the right position for the canter departure. One way to achieve this flexibility and responsiveness is by practicing diagonal work. This will help you develop better control of your horse's shoulder and ultimately let you set your horse up for a good transition.
For example, by riding him so that his nose is traveling in a straight line but his right shoulder is heading toward one or two o'clock, his left front foot and left hind foot will be stepping over in front of the right feet. You're actually getting him to travel in his left "lead"-even though you're only walking or trotting.
You can practice this in one direction and then the other. Make sure you're squeezing evenly with both legs and thinking "forward." As you bring his nose toward the base of his neck, he'll soften his shoulder and move diagonally.
Hip Control
Along with controlling your horse's shoulders, you'll need to develop excellent control over his hips. Maybe you already know how to connect the inside rein to the hips to get him to take a big step to the outside. By picking up on the left rein, for instance, you can cue your horse to move his hips to the right. This maneuver is at the heart of teaching your horse to stop well and comes in handy in a million situations, from settling a jigging horse to gaining control of a runaway.
Another aspect of hip control involves having your horse step his hips to the inside when you pick up the outside rein. This maneuver, called "haunches-in" or "hips-in," is a great tool for positioning your horse to take the correct lead when you ask for the canter.
We'll return to this topic in a future article, but once you master the technique, you'll be able to make that slight adjustment in your horse's hip position that will almost guarantee that he pushes off with his outside hind foot.
Time to Canter
Let's say you've done all your homework and you're satisfied with the way your horse is responding to your cues. You've developed great speed control at the trot; you can move his hips and his shoulders; he halts well; and you can keep him properly positioned, relaxed and collected through transitions. Now you're ready to start working on the canter.
Begin by asking your horse for an extended trot and then urge him to go just a little faster. Don't use a cue to ask for the canter, just encourage him to do a little bit more, squeezing with both legs, mentally turning his dial to 11 or 12.
When he breaks into the canter, he'll be doing it to give himself a break. At the extended trot, his feet have to move pretty fast. Changing his footfall pattern to a canter will actually allow him to slow his feet down. This slowdown will teach him to move quietly into the canter instead of speeding up or rushing into it.
After a few strides, ease him back to the trot, and then slow him down even more, gradually bringing him to a stop. Let him stand and relax for a little rest. Then, repeat the exercise.
Eventually, he'll decide to go ahead and canter before his trot reaches its maximum speed. You'll be able to feel when he's about to canter, and you can think "canter" and squeeze both legs to encourage him. But don't try to give him a specific canter cue.
You're just working on correctness and consistency at this point. If you start concentrating on getting the transition in a particular spot, you're likely to become more aggressive in your cues, which is the last thing you want.
As you work on the transition, you'll probably find that some of them are far from perfect. In fact, early on, you may get only one correct transition in 10 or 20 tries. A lot of them may look fairly ragged, but you shouldn't focus on what's wrong with them. Instead, concentrate on that image of correctness. (Remember your mental picture of that smooth departure.) You'll find that the quality of the transitions will improve, and occasionally, you'll get a really good one.
Keep working with that thought in mind, and the percentage of correct transitions will improve. Eventually, every time you ask your horse for a canter, he'll give you a pretty transition.
